I have a few reminders and updates to share related to public safety, construction projects, and our ongoing water leak and mini-drought crisis.

Public safety: HPD is scheduled to receive an additional $5M in overtime to focus primarily on investigations. I support the proposed funding to address the case backlog, and more specifically, I have requested that a portion of the funds continue the work to mitigate the after-hours on the far west side of the District. I will alert you when the item is on the council’s agenda.

Water Leaks: As of September 15, District F has  181 open cases for water leaks. Several residents have sent photos and emails with 311 service request numbers, and we have routed all cases to HPW. We have 12 contractors working alongside the HPW water repair division to address emergency and routine water leaks. On Wednesday, September 13, HPW Director Carol Haddock updated the number of open, closed, and priority cases. Please watch the clip here and listen for yourself. Continue to share 311 cases that are taking longer to resolve – my office can provide context or additional information. You can also visit https://www.houstonpublicworks.org/ 

As an aside, if your water bill is scheduled as an automatic draft and you are experiencing unusually high bills, please remove recurring payments until the issue is resolved. We are working on several cases, and the reimbursement process is incredibly arduous. Please take a moment and make sure.

Last year, we worked to identify dark intersections throughout the District and installed quite a few street lights. During that process, my office realized several tree canopies were blocking street lights. I submitted a list of streets to the Houston Parks Department, and the tree trimming is complete. I want to extend this opportunity again. Please take a few minutes and complete the survey so we can install new street lights and or trim back canopies blocking existing street lights. Click here to complete the survey.

Sincerely,

Councilmember Tiffany D. Thomas

HOUSTON SPORTS HALL OF FAME RING CEREMONY

On September 14, Councilmember Thomas attended a ring ceremony honoring the latest Houston Sports Hall of Fame inductees: Elvin Hayes, Bruce Matthews and Calvin Murphy. The Hall of Fame will be located downtown at Green Street and will be built in phases. The first phase of the project features a Walk of Fame stretching from the House of Blues through the Green Street Promenade. Further in the future, the Houston Sports Hall of Fame will be housed in a downtown building. Click here for more information.

The charts below show the current and historical data for the testing of Cr6 conducted by the City at these drinking water wells.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur. EPA has not created a drinking water standard for Cr6 by itself but does have a drinking water standard for total chromium, which includes Cr6. In order to ensure that the greatest potential risk is addressed, EPA based its drinking water standard assuming that total chromium consists of 100 percent Cr6, the form of chromium with the greatest health concern. EPA’s drinking water standard for total chromium is 100 parts per billion (ppb). The highest level of Cr6 observed in the drinking water system has been 8.0 ppb. The chromium present in drinking water in parts of District F have consistently remained far below the SDWA limit of 100 ppb.